in photos. Lots of photos.
The inspiration/invitation, drawn by our awesome babysitter Emma:
Talia’s comment was pretty classic: “Ah yes, that is me in the middle, the princess, surrounded by all of my friends … but where are their presents?”
The invitation was a photo of an original drawing, which is below (and now hanging on our wall). We also printed images of it for the banner (which you can see in the group photo). We rented a playroom located next to a lovely park, which was perfect. It was too cold for an entirely outdoor party, but after brunch/cake/art projects all of the kids went outside to run around:
The card in action:
And the birthday girl (some kids came in costume, but we also brought our bag of dress-up clothes so Talia changed accessories a few times):
First family at the park!
And who knows? Maybe next year we won’t have to transport a 3-layer (already fairly wobbly) pink layer cake almost a mile via stroller … thanks Grandma!
We started out with some magical art activities. Let this be a warning to anyone considering recommending a babysitter to us/offering to watch the kids, that I might just casually mention that it would be super fun! awesome really! if you do a little drawing for us … you know, a full stack of white crayon on white watercolor paper images …
but the kids really loved them. We also had sea salt out to sprinkle on top of the watercolors for a little extra magic.
I also brought our sensory bin (I hear in some parts of the country they call them under the bed storage bins?) to the park and filled it with a mound of gak (glue and borax) and knights/dragons (Toobs). It was pretty neat to watch a group of kids gather and work together with the gak, something they definitely would not have succeeded at, even last year:
Photo credit to Lynda
I may have announced no food for anyone until we take a group photo (our family tradition – they are so much fun to look at latter), but … it worked. TEN preschoolers and two toddlers (Lucy seems to have wandered out of the photo frame). Hooray!
I took a fellow moms advice and kept the food really easy: bagels, cream cheese, juice boxes, and cut up fruit on skewers. Dessert however included almond layer cake, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate pomegranate cookies, and cinnamon cookies. I think they liked it:
Details on the cake (vintage ballerinas):
And then we all headed out to the playground … with dance ribbons:
And of course, party favors. Little notebooks with oil pastels (notorious for not being very washable. Sorry!)
Photo by Lynda
Thank you to everyone who made it to the party, to Emma for the artwork, and to my mom for successfully delivering the cake. Talia was quite pleased.
January 16, 2013 at 2:25 pm |
That really does look magical. I love the artwork and how you wove it into the decorations for the party. The dance ribbons look like they were a huge hit!